Legend of the Kitsune
by TheDragonsTale
Summary: Minato always tried his best to keep his village safe. So when there is a possibility that the Kyuubi will escape, he seals it into his son. But who is crazy enough to think you can seal a being as powerful as a Bijuu without some side-effects?
1. Dawn of the Kitsune

Minato sat in the waiting room of the secluded medic-nin office. Lately, Kushina hadn't been feeling too good, so he pulled some strings to get Konoha's best medic to give her a checkup. It started with her slowing down and punching with less power in their spars, but recently, Kushina had said she was starting to get headaches. He was worried for her, as Kushina is too stubborn to admit that something is hurting or bothering her.

"Minato"

Minato looked up at the sound of his name to see Tsunade had exited the medical room. He did not like the grim look on her face. "Is she alright?" He asked.

"She's fine right now. There is some good news and some bad news." Tsunade said gravely.

Minato's heart plummeted straight down to his stomach. Judging by Tsunade's tone, the bad outweighs the good. By a lot. He nodded stiffly, "Good news first."

A small smile reached Tsunade's face, "The good news, is that you are going to be a father."

Minato's soul was instantly lifted in love and joy before depressing in bitter sweet emotion. He was definitely not going to like what came next.

Tsunade took a deep breath, "The bad news is that the Kyuubi's chakra is slowly poisoning her. The little bits of demon chakra that come from the seal are building up her chakra toxicity until her body can't handle it anymore. Normally, her reserves would filter it out, but the constant outflow from the Kyuubi is preventing her system from filtering it. With the rate that the chakra is leaking from the seal, it is likely that she will die with her child's birth."

Minato was stunned, but within a moment the sealing possibilities started running through his head. _A chakra storage seal won't work, and neither will reinforcing her seal. The outflow of chakra from a seal is unpreventable, otherwise it will stop working. Adding more chakra to her system to help it filter the bijuu chakra won't work because of her special Uzumaki chakra and the lack of Uzumaki. Sealing the Kyuubi into another person won't work either due to the stress on her chakra system from moving it out of of her body. His thoughts went to his unborn child. That's it! If the Kyuubi is transferred into the child, then it won't be leaving Kushina's body and therefore won't stress her chakra coils as much! The only problem is that the unborn child won't be able to handle all of the Kyuubi's chakra. I need more information about this._ Minato immediately snapped out of his frozen state and raced off to the Konoha archives.

Tsunade simply stared after him. He had taken that a lot better than she thought he would.

 _ **Konoha Shinobi Library**_

Minato entered the library at a brisk walk that anyone else would call running. "Inu, find me all the books on chakra coils and systems. Hawk, find me any information on pregnancy and fetuses. Tora, gather all of Mito Uzumaki's journals, writings, and diaries that have anything to do with the Kyuubi, Jinchuriki, or the Bijuu. Go."

While his personal ANBU guard went to fetch the things he requested, he went to the hidden place in the library where he kept all of the high level sealing materials and seal testing rooms. The first thing he did was go through Orochimaru's sealing notes and ideas. Although Orochimaru left the village after being caught doing immoral experiments on infants and civilians, he couldn't deny the skill Orochimaru had with both genetic and chakra modification seals. Take the cursed seal he put on little Anko for example. It was structured to make the maximum use of the energy generated by negative emotions by converting it into chakra that is split between giving the user a chakra boost and fueling a secondary part of the seal that changes the user's cell structure to reach peak efficiency. At least, that is what Minato understood of it. That area of sealing wasn't his specialty.

Rummaging through Orochimaru's notes he soon found a paper about recreating the effects of a bijuu's chakra to allow shinobi to have a last resort to make them stronger. Scanning the paper he saw that most of it was about how to make demon-like chakra and store it. He scowled. _This isn't very useful._ Something caught his eye at the very end of Orochimaru's shelf of notes. The notes were in a small book instead of being scrawled on paper like most of them. Picking up the notebook, he read the title written on the front in Orochimaru's handwriting.

 _Transferring Chakra-Based Bloodlines During Infancy_. He assumed by the book's location at the end of the shelf that it was the last book of sealing notes he wrote before his exile from Konoha. Unless there is a secret laboratory that ANBU hadn't found yet with a more recent one. Opening to the first page, he began reading.

 _I have recently made a breakthrough in my research with chakra-based bloodlines. I realised through much experimentation that recreating the Wood Release bloodline through genetic alteration has failed so I started looking at the possibility that Bloodlines are formed through unique chakra systems. The way the chakra system forms during pregnancy allows the child to mold chakra better in certain ways. This is where I hypothesise bloodlines like Wood, Dust, and Ice release come from. Chakra systems solidify 24-56 hours after birth, which is the reason why bijuu can only be sealed into newborn children. After the chakra system solidifies, minor changes can be made to the system up until age 12-13, but they will experience drawbacks. After age 12-13, the chakra system is fully developed and attempted changes will kill or permanently cripple the subject._

The rest of the page was filled with sketched diagrams of chakra systems at different ages. Flipping to the next page, Minato continued to read.

 _My current experiment with Wood Release is exposing a child's chakra system to wood natured chakra in the womb, where their chakra system is still forming. This will force the unborn child's chakra system to adapt to that nature of chakra and therefore allow the child to mold chakra of that nature. The problem with this method is that a constant flow of the natured chakra needs to be flowing through the system in order for it to retain the capabilities of chakra molding. The natured chakra is not needed after the solidification of the chakra system, as it will then retain it's shape. This method could also hypothetically be used to birth shinobi with extremely strong elemental chakra natures, possibly mix elemental chakra natures to create an artificial bloodline, allow shinobi to produce demon chakra, or create seamless jinchuriki that can use bijuu chakra without it corrupting their emotions or chakra systems._

Minato dropped the book and immediately left the room. He had his solution. What he didn't notice, was a small white snake summon take advantage of Minato's carelessness in leaving the door open to dispose of Orochimaru's notes and projects.

What he didn't notice, was the next page of the notebook, that spoke of the potential side effects of changing a child's chakra system during pregnancy.

 _ **Hokage's Office**_

"Inu, Hawk, Tora" Minato said as he summoned a couple of clones to grab the stacks of paperwork on the desk and work on it elsewhere. The ANBU instantly appeared and Minato nodded at each of them. "Have you found the materials I requested?" Minato asked, and the ANBU simply responded by each of them pulling out a large stack of books and papers. Minato almost cowered but thought of his wife who has less than a year left to live if he can't find a way to transfer the Kyuubi's chakra to his unborn child.

 _ **Namikaze Estate: 2 weeks later**_

Kushina was beyond pissed at her husband. She just found out that it was likely she wouldn't live past her son's birth and she hasn't even seen Minato, much less spend her remaining days with him! Although the doctors said that they can't tell the child's gender at this point in time, she knew that she was having a son, believe it! Kushina's eyes started watering for the millionth time in the past couple weeks. _I won't be able to watch my son grow up. Not his first steps, first jutsu, first love…_ Kushina quickly rubbed away her tears with her sleeve. All her sadness was then immediately replaced with fury. How dare he! Minato hadn't talked to her once about all this and kept himself locked away in the Hokage's office while she cried here alone.

"Kushina!" Minato yelled as he used his flying thunder god jutsu to appear inside the house.

Kushina was seeing red though. Does her husband think he can just waltz in and act like he always does when he knows she is going to die soon and hasn't seen her in 2 weeks. "Minato," Kushina began growling in a dangerous way that promised a lot of pain, "There had better have been a full on invasion for the past 2 weeks to excuse this. Talk."

Minato was instantly talking to save his hide from a frighteningly angry Kushina, "Worse than an invasion darling. When I found out about the problem that you were having I couldn't just let you die without trying to find a solution. I've been working 2 weeks straight to ensure your safety, love."

The red faded away from Kushina's vision and she saw how tired Minato looked. It looked like he didn't sleep at all for at least a week and only ate and drank the bare minimum to survive. Then despite his exhausted state, he used the flying thunder god jutsu to get back to her as fast as possible. She thought it was quite sweet.

"Alright," She said and kissed her husband on the cheek, "You're forgiven, believe it."

Minato sighed in relief and said, "Well I found an answer. Basically, I'm going to make a seal that slowly transfers the Kyuubi into our child. Our child will never have the same problem you have because it's system will build itself in a way that can naturally accommodate it. By the time our child is born, it will hold the entire Kyuubi."

Kushina blinked. She didn't understand most of that so she did the only thing an Uzumaki mother would do in this situation.

"Stupid. Don't call our son an it! Our baby is going to be a boy, believe it!" Kushina yelled at him.

Minato chuckled, "Okay then, we will do the sealing in 2 days."

Kushina looked at him a little oddly. "But won't whatever you work best if it's done as soon as possible?"

Now Minato was laughing in a way that was only possible if he was a least a little insane, "That is as soon as possible, I can barely stand right now."

Kushina didn't have time to respond before Minato fainted on the spot. Using her superior ninja speed she caught him and brought him upstairs to lay him in their bed. Brushing a few of Minato's bangs to the side, she put a gentle kiss on his forehead. Her husband was going to be absolutely pampered during the next couple days, believe it!

 _ **Namikaze Sealing Room: 2 days later**_

After receiving the best treatment from his wife while he recovered, Minato began writing the seal array over every inch of Kushina's body. Kushina and Minato were comfortable with each others bodies, so Kushina had no problem stripping while Minato scrawled advanced seals all over her body. She had more of a problem refraining from teasing her husband while his sealing formula started covering… more sensitive areas.

"This is kinky," Kushina said, "The Uzumaki did a lot with seals, but I never thought of using them in foreplay." She wriggled her eyebrows at Minato while he blushed.

Minato stayed mostly professional as he finished writing over the difficult areas and worked towards the seal on her stomach, where the most important parts of the array would be making sure that the Kyuubi didn't escape or damage Kushina's chakra system. He also had pills with seals written in water and acid resistant ink that Kushina had to take throughout the course of her pregnancy. These new ingestible seals made sure that the Kyuubi wouldn't escape from 'Naruto' as Kushina had taken to calling their son. Minato finished the array and disguised the seal with the kanji for 'child'.

"Are you ready Kushina? I'm going to activate the seal." Minato said as he completed the seal.

Kushina nodded. "I'm ready Minato."

Minato clapped his hands together before saying, "Sealing Arts: Seal of Sun and Moon, activate!". Minato then sent his chakra through the seal to activate it.

Kushina's eyebrow twitched, "Minato, that didn't do anything."

Minato shook his head, "No, it did work. Remember that this is a seal that is transferring the Kyuubi's chakra into Naruto over the course of your entire pregnancy. It won't transfer it all at once."

Kushina stood up and gave Minato a hug in her full naked glory, "I love you so much and I am so glad that I will be able to raise our son with you, believe it."

"Yeah," Minato said as he hugged her back, "Me too."

 _ **Tsunade's Office: a few months later**_

Green medical chakra covered hands hovered over one Kushina Uzumaki's stomach. Tsunade frowned before turning to Minato. "The Kyuubi's chakra is interfering with my diagnostic jutsu, so I can't tell you any details about the baby, but I can tell you 2 things. The baby is healthy, and it's a boy. Aside from that, Kushina's condition now shows no signs of deteriorating."

Kushina couldn't care whatsoever. Her baby Naruto was growing and she would be able to see him soon. She launched herself at Minato and glomped him. "Isn't this great! Soon we'll be able to see Naruto with his first toys, first teeth, first solid food, first drawing…" Kushina continued gushing to Minato.

His mind was filled with darker thoughts though. If Tsunade's diagnostic jutsu couldn't detect much around the Kyuubi's chakra, how do they know something didn't go wrong with the sealing? What if Naruto was born with a ruined chakra system? Or if he was sickly and weak due to the huge contrast between his chakra amount and physical body? He tuned back into Kushina's drone just as she finished.

"-and we'll both be able to teach him how to be the best ninja ever! Believe it!"

Minato smiled at his wife's cute verbal quirk and wondered if his son would pick it up as well, "Sure, I believe it."

 _ **In a doctor's office just outside Konoha: some months later**_

A couple weeks after that last checkup with Tsunade, her lover had died. She was gone from Konoha by the end of the funeral, and Minato couldn't stop her. He did manage to convince her, with over a month of persistent letters, to help with Naruto's birth. That was where they were now.

"Come on Kushina," Tsunade said over the muffled groans and screams from Kushina, "One more push."

Kushina was sweating heavily from the effort. This was more painful than anything she's experienced in her career as a ninja. Although that may have been more because of Minato than anything else. Kushina did not linger on that thought as it only served to belittle herself as a ninja. She weathered through a final contraction before the extreme pain was replaced by a dull ache. Multiple gasps were heard in the private doctor's office.

"Tsunade," Kushina croaked out with her voice rough from her yelling, "Let me hold him."

Tsunade seemed slightly reluctant for a moment before complying with her demands. Kushina wrapped her arms around her newborn child as she began to doze. She wrapped her arms around her son, and all nine of his swaying fox tails.


	2. Guardian of the Kitsune

**AN: Apologies to the people who wanted Naruto's parents to like him. At least one of his parents care for him.**

They were in a dark doctor's office, a few hours after Kushina gave birth. All the lights were turned off, and the sun had just dipped below the horizon. Anyone else wouldn't have been able to see, however no one was there due to the barrier seal around the place. The office's occupants didn't have too much difficulty seeing, as they were ninja, and had been trained at a young age to hide and strike from the shadows. One of the figures shifted, and began to speak.

"Kushina, what are we going to do?" Minato asked as he ran his hands through his hair, "What if it is the reincarnation of the Kyuubi?"

A harsh slap was heard in the night as Kushina hissed at her husband, "How dare you call our son an it, and the Kyuubi no less! I would've thought better from you." Kushina glanced down at the bundle of blankets and fox tails that wrapped around her young son before smiling, "You know, he looks just like you, Minato."

Minato suppressed his internal revulsion at being compared to some _thing_ with the same 9 fox tails as the Kyuubi. The _thing_ that could even possibly be the Kyuubi. However, he didn't become a kage without learning how to suppress his emotions. He put a smile on his face and nodded, as he felt that even his skills at hiding emotions wouldn't be able to hide the disgust in his voice.

Kushina knew that there was something wrong with her husband. She made sure that when they were married he told her all his tells, as there was no room for deception among her family. She did not try to hide her ting of disappointment in Minato for attempting to hide something from her for whatever reason. Especially concerning their own son.

Minato detected the disappointment directed towards him but said nothing, as there was nothing to be said.

Kushina lifted Naruto from his blankets to take a closer look at him. He really did look so much like Minato with the slight spiky blond hair on his head and his big blue eyes. She thought that his face was a little more like hers, although that could be because of the baby fat. Sprouting from just above where normal human ears would be where two blondish white fox ears. Her thumb brushed near one of them and it twitched. Kushina giggled, "How cute!"

Minato felt the need to leave. He couldn't stand how Kushina was pampering that thing she called their son. He would need to organise an assassination of the thing as soon as Kushina wouldn't be suspicious of him doing it. After all, he must kill the demon before it becomes a threat to Konoha. "Kushina," Minato said to grab his wife's attention, "I'm going back to the village now, I'll see you at home." Minato proceed to exit the doctor's office.

"Mhmmm" Kushina hummed as she continued to gaze at Naruto. His moon coloured tails were gently moving in random motions. She ran her hand down one of the tails and almost gasped. They were so soft! Looking back at his eyes, she saw that they were slightly slitted in an almost animalistic manner. She then knew that something was wrong, not because his eyes were slitted, but something else entirely. The baby was silent, only making noise with it's shallow breaths broke the air. The perfect picture of a sleeping baby. Except for that one thing she hadn't noticed before that moment. His eyes were open, he was awake.

 _ **Konoha Shinobi Hospital: Secret Room**_

The ANBU were suspicious when they heard someone crashing through the hospital like someone way dying. They eased when they discovered that it was only Kushina, but were once again tense when she beelined straight to the secret medical room that they were guarding. This medical room is used as the Hokage's private medical room, as enemy shinobi can learn about the Hokage by spying on check-ups or by extracting DNA. Once Minato became Hokage he instantly extended the rights of the room to his family. After a quick nod from the ANBU who checks for henge or genjutsu, the leading ANBU of the team admitted Kushina into the secret area.

"Swan." Was the only thing that Kushina said. They knew who she was talking about. ANBU didn't have very many medical ninja but Swan was a marvelous exception. Unlike most medic nin who are female, Swan is one of the rarer male medics. He also had a large passion for the healing arts and became a ninja for the sole purpose of being to use a variety of medical procedures that aren't available to civilians. Because of this, he was one of the best medic nin besides Tsunade.

Swan left his hiding place to kneel in front of Kushina, "Yes, Lady Uzumaki."

Kushina inclined her head slightly to acknowledge him, "First I need everyone who doesn't know my S-class medical information to leave."

Swan nodded, seemingly to no one but a few shadows were seen as some of the ANBU left the room. "We now have privacy, Lady Uzumaki."

Kushina retrieved a bundle from inside her clothing.

"Is that-" Swan started.

"Yes. Swan, meet Naruto." Kushina said, "Although I am sure you would like to talk more about him I'm afraid that he might have a serious issue."

Swan was instantly in focus mode as he gently unwrapped Naruto from his blankets. When he saw the ears and tails he couldn't help but flinch back as if burned. "Is this the issue? That you've given birth to a demon?" He said in a cold voice.

Kushina growled at him like an Inuzuka mother might to one who threatens their child, "That is my _son,_ believe it! Watch your tongue."

Swan was instantly ashamed, "I beg for your forgiveness, Lady Uzumaki. I was shocked and that caused me to act irrationally."

Kushina waved him off, "I know you're sincere, so I will pardon you this one time. The important thing here is solving the actually problem. In case you couldn't see past the fox tails, Naruto is awake, but isn't doing anything that babies normally do."

Swan was hurt a little at the reminder of how he reacted when he saw Naruto and was determined to make it up to him. Looking down at the baby, he saw that Naruto was indeed awake. He took out a flashlight and shone it into each of his eyes with no reaction. Next he took a pop gun and set it off next to Naruto's ear, but again there was no reaction. After a pew pinches in various places with zero response Swan seemed to nod to himself. Swan gathered some chakra into his hands and was instantly met with a small chakra pulse.

Swan turned to Kushina, "Naruto's condition is completely normal."

Kushina looked outraged, "You call that completely normal?!"

Swan was slightly ticked off, "As I was going to continue saying, it seems like Naruto is a sensor, and among sensors this is a perfectly normal thing. Or rather, this is a rare birth condition which results in a sensor."

Kushina's eyebrow rose, "Continue."

Swan began to elaborate, "For some reason that has not been discovered yet, some ninja children will be born without their senses. Now, if you couldn't see, hear, feel, smell, or taste anything, how would you perceive the world around you?"

Kushina thought about it for a while before her brain started to steam and smoke began pouring out of her ears.

Swan sighed, "Well children born like this learn how to perceive the world around them using chakra. This ability carries on through their entire life, which allows them to sense chakra signatures and makes them a sensor. There is a theory that the longer the child can't access their senses, the stronger of a sensor they will become. Usually the blackout phase, as many people like to call it, lasts anywhere between a couple days and a couple years. There is a bit of a learning disadvantage though, as children whose blackout phase is longer fall behind on mental skills because they were unable to learn for the time they were in their blackout phase."

Kushina nodded in understanding even though she didn't understand most of it, "So basically, Naruto's going to be unable to interact with the world around him for a while."

Swan shook his head, "Not quite, as he with still be able to sense chakra. The most common thing done with sensor children is having people move around them while channeling chakra through their bodies so that the children know how to move."

Kushina responded instantly, "Yosh, I will do that and more. If I can not do that, I will give Naruto a piggyback ride around Konoha 1000 times, believe it."

Unknown to Kushina and Swan, an academy student named Maito Gai had been passing by the hidden doorway to the secret room and had heard what she said past the silencing seals in the room. He did not know who or where the voice came from or who this 'Naruto' person was, but the enthusiasm and energy in that statement greatly impressed him. Right then and there he swore to be an enthusiastic and youthful ninja who said energetic statements like that all the time. _Hmmm, the youthful ninja. Youthful is the perfect word to describe what I want to become so I will try to use it as much as possible._ Gai then ran towards a nearby training ground screaming "Yooouuuth."

Unknown to Kushina and Swan, they had just created a monster, or more appropriately, a beast.

 _ **Namikaze Estate**_

Kushina returned to the house much more at ease than she had been before. There was nothing wrong with her baby, and he would be sensor too! Kushina had worked with a couple sensors before and their ability was amazing. _I have to tell Minato to find some scrolls on how to train sensors,_ She thought.

Kushina waved at and greeted a couple of ninja and civilians she was acquainted with as she passed them, careful to hide Naruto in the folds of her clothing. This had her wondering for the rest of the walk on when she would be able to go out in public with Naruto by her side. What Kushina really wanted to do was scream to the world the joy she felt whenever she looked at her baby boy, but she also know that Minato had many enemies that would try to hunt Naruto if they found out about him. Knowing Minato, she speculated that he would want her to wait until it was already discovered, or until Naruto was chunin. She went along with it because it's hard to have a good childhood when you have to watch yourself for assassins all the time. She would know, having been the princess of whirlpool before it was destroyed.

 _Hmmm,_ Kushina thought, _This could pose a problem._ Afterall, it is also hard to have a good childhood when you are hidden from the entire village. Kushina thought about it for a while longer before reaching the conclusion that Naruto won't be able to do much social interaction until after his blackout phase anyways. _I will introduce him as my son as soon as his blackout phase ends, believe it!_ She exclaimed within her mind in her usual fashion.

While her brain was occupied, her body auto-piloted back to the Namikaze household. A breaking of the fourth wall caused Kushina to think, _Wait, didn't the bold slanted text already say that I was at the Namikaze estate?_ As soon as she had that thought, Kushina became confused, so she did what she always did when she couldn't explain some thought she had. She dismissed it from her mind and never thought about it again.

Cutting her finger slightly with the blade concealed in her wedding ring, she unlocked the blood seals protecting the estate. She took a quick glance to make sure the seals correctly locked themselves, and proceeded to take Naruto out of her clothing. The first thing she did was go to the baby room she and Minato had prepared for Naruto and grab some children's clothes from the drawers. Once she had the tiny garments, she went to the bathroom to fill up the bathtub. Finally catching a break from her self assigned tasks, she took some time to pay attention to Naruto. The young jinchuriki's eyes were now closed, which meant that he was asleep.

Kushina was broken out of her baby induced trance when she realised the bath was full. Stripping herself of her clothes and Naruto of his blanket, she sank into the lukewarm water holding Naruto on her lap with his head above the water. Now that she had recovered from the initial shock and amazement of Naruto's tails and has time to think about things, she adjusted Naruto in her lap so she could inspect his tails.

The tails looked a lot thinner now that the fluffy fox-like fur had been soaked in the water, and they definitely didn't look like they could crush mountains or cause hurricanes with a single wave. The tails originated out of where the tail bone would be on a normal human. The fur covering the tails (and ears) was a blond colour some shades lighter than the hair on his head, like a Yamanaka's hair colour, and covered all of Naruto's flesh thinly. The thin hairs on the rest of his body, when Naruto gets older, would probably grow longer and thicker until it would be like a thin garment covering his entire body.

As Kushina drained the bath and started brushing her hair she wondered if Naruto's furry ears and tails needed to be brushed. She eyed the messy tails and gave herself a nod in the affirmative. She calmly brushed his tails and ears until she realised she had been awake for the past 36 hours and went to bed, snuggling Naruto close as she slept.

 _ **Hokage's Office: About 8 hours before**_

Minato furiously stormed into his office and unsealed all of his sealing notes for the seal of sun and moon. He passionately read, re-read, and triple checked everything in a desperate attempt to find out where he went wrong, to find out what allowed the Kyuubi to escape the way it did. He looked at everything, from the fundamentals of the sealing formula to completely mundane things like how it is speculated that Bijuu find fire calming.

Even after searching for a reason for over 8 hours he found nothing that even hinted at a problem. He had been really thorough with this seal, as he wouldn't stand to risk Kushina and the villagers lives for something as silly as a sealing mistake. Yet somehow, he made a mistake somewhere. Thoughts racing through his head he finally settled on a theory with cold hard emotion with it.

He never had a son. The only thing that was in Kushina's womb was the Kyuubi trying to escape as a child, and Minato had let it. With his frozen resolve, he decided he would kill the demon while it was weakened by its rebirth. First he would have to convince Kushina that the creature was not their son, then she could join him in annihilating the Kyuubi once and for all!

Minato noticed as one of his ANBU (other than the ones guarding him) entered his office. It was his Swan ANBU who was stationed at the Konoha Hospital's secret medical office. "Report." Minato said.

Swan snapped into a salute and told him of Kushina's visit and how sadly his son, Minato had flinched a bit when he heard that, was senseless due to being a sensor. Swan finished with a, "Congratulations on becoming a father, Hokage-sama."

Minato was too occupied to be angry at the ANBU for referring to the demon as his son, because immediately after the ANBU finished his report he broken the previous silence he had held by bursting into a maniacal laugh. "This is perfect! The Kyuubi is extremely weak right now! It will be so easy to kill that wretched demon." Minato completely forgot about the ANBU in the room.

Swan made a quick and curt bow before exiting the room, removing his ANBU gear in a private changing room, and throwing up into a garbage bin. He couldn't believe that his normally kind Hokage could be so twisted, especially to his own son. He did remember with guilt and shame of how he first reacted when he saw little Naruto, but it still wasn't in that perverted and almost _obsessed_ way that Minato was psychotically plotting his son's death.

Swan had reached a finality. The fourth Hokage has broken. He will need to start informing other clans and ANBU. He will need to start planning the revolution.

 _ **Namikaze Estate Garden: the next morning**_

Kushina woke up as the sun had fully broken the horizon. It truly was a beautiful day that day, as flowers were in their glorious final stand against the forces of fall. Winters weren't very long in the land of fire, as they usually started mid december and ended early february. Fall, however, was extra deadly, as scorching winds flew through the country at high speeds, tearing at all manner of leaves, petals, and plants.

Kushina decided to take full advantage of the mild weather and do some training. Unsealing a crib, she put Naruto in it on the porch so she could keep an eye on him. As she settled into a taijutsu stance, she suddenly remembered Swans advice on how to raise sensor children and smacked her forehead for forgetting so quickly. She then went through her katas while channeling chakra through her body.

Naruto lay down in his crib with his eyes open. For him there was no difference between having them open or closed, but having them open felt more natural when he was awake. All his attention was focused in on the only thing he could detect: a moving energy. The energy was a lot like the energy that took up the space he occupied, his 'me-energy', but bigger, better, and very different. If he was capable of complex thought, he would ponder how he thought the energy was like his and very different at the same time, but he wasn't able to ponder that well. Just then, he discovered a different energy entered the space and he quietly wondered what it was as it drew closer and closer…

Kushina was sudden startled out of her training when she felt a sudden pulse of chakra. Turning towards the source of the pulse, her eyes landed on Naruto's crib just as a small figure was fleeing the scene. Kushina tried to chase after it, but Kushina wasn't very good at tracking and the figure was already out of sight. Instead, Kushina rushed to check on Naruto, who was still sending out chakra pulses. She figured that that was his way of crying.

Picking Naruto up from his crib, the first thing she noticed was blood all over Naruto's face. She retrieved a medical wipe from her first aid kit and wiped the blood from his face. What she saw were 3 straight clean cuts on each cheek that could be mistaken for birthmarks if they weren't currently bleeding. In fact, with his fox ears and tails, the whisker-like marks that would likely scar were almost fitting. Once Kushina dressed the wound and tried flaring her chakra in a comforting way to stop Naruto's chakra pulses, she resumed training and didn't think much more about the mark.

A certain fox demon knew what the marks meant, and by whom they were made by. The messenger of the fox clan had arrived, and had just marked Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze as part of the fox clan.

 _ **Naruto's Mind**_

Naruto felt something different about the darkness he had just been transported into. The emptiness had a different quality somehow. He started sending out waves of energy out because he didn't know how to do anything else. Soon, something unbelievable happened and Naruto's eyes widened by instinct without even realizing he did so. This energy was very _very_ big. Even though the other energy he felt before was bigger than his, this energy was absolutely enormous. The energy moved, changed its pattern and texture, and split in a way that seemed like a secret code he had to decipher in order to understand. The energy stopped it's strange actions for a moment before taking on a happy and calming quality that he understood. The huge energy came closer and wrapped itself around him, and Naruto felt content. His world was no longer empty.

 **Author's Note: There are some things in this chapter that may be a bit confusing but I will address them later. If you still don't see answers in later chapters just leave a review and I will answer any questions about the story within the story so there won't be a bunch of long author's notes like this one.**

 **To the readers of this story: Would you prefer longer chapters with less frequent updates or shorter chapters with more frequent updates?**


	3. Guardian of the Kitsune part 2

_**Author's Notes: Thanks to the one who recommended the reading on Critical Period Hypothesis :) I will keep that in mind. Also, most of the beginning will be focused on other characters because Naruto is a baby and I don't like time skips very much. I will slowly switch over to give Naruto more 'screen time' but right now the main focus is on Itachi and his team.**_

Itachi Uchiha was about to pass the genin exam. The academy curriculum really wasn't difficult if you knew the basics and had access to one of the greatest clan libraries in the elemental nations. _Scratch that,_ He thought as he performed a simple transformation _, You don't even need the awesome library, all you need are the basics._

Itachi sighed, all he did was learn a couple E-rank jutsu, perform a couple punches, and write a test on tactics so basic that they were practically common sense. Yet, he was praised as a prodigy. The real challenge would be passing the chunin or jonin exams. He sighed again as he walked up to receive his headband.

The teachers supervising the exam scowled at the sighing Uchiha. Did he think that he was above taking the academy exam. The teachers all hated the arrogance of the Uchiha, and pitied the jonin that would be forced to teach one. Some teachers smiled internally, as they knew that overconfidence could get you killed on the field and that the Uchiha clan deserved that.

As Itachi left the exam room, their teacher called the next name, "Iruka Umino." Itachi stared at the other student as he stood up from his seat and casually strolled towards the exam room. Itachi didn't know most of his classmates, as many envied him for reaching his final year at the academy 6 years younger than them. Due to the animosity, he was isolated from his peers.

Itachi walked past Iruka to get back to his seat and did so normally until Iruka was right beside him. Shivers subtly rippled down Itachi's spine as he whipped his head around to examine the boy who had continued walking past him. Itachi's eyes widened ever so slightly. There was something strange, something dangerous. He definitely did not want that to be targeted towards him.

Someone sitting at the desk beside the frozen Uchiha sneered, "What? Are you expecting everyone to bow down to you as they walk past you, 'Mighty Uchiha'?" He finished while miming air brackets. The boy who had mocked Itachi, like many others of the village, didn't like how the Uchiha walked all over everybody else. He expected Itachi to retort, or fight him, so he was surprised when the Uchiha simply glanced over and murmured, "I am not like my family."

Itachi then walked back to his seat and sat down to wait for the remaining students to take the academy test. He wondered what his squad would be like, and if he would be able to find teammates among them. Itachi sincerely hoped that his team wouldn't treat him with scorn because of his young age or arrogant family members. He was scared that his teacher would either show favoritism towards him or assume that he had a superiority complex.

Itachi shook the thoughts from his head as he noticed the teachers filing out of the exam room. The homeroom teacher stood at the front, obviously prepared to make a speech. He just simply reminded everyone of exactly what being a ninja entails. Itachi didn't see the point of the speech. If his classmates are squeamish around blood and death them why did they become ninja in the first place?

The teacher began to read out teams, "Squad 1: Jokoto Mikaya, Sedona Machiko…" Itachi turned out the names that he didn't know until he heard, "Squad 9: Itachi Uchiha, Iruka Umino, and Anko Mitarashi. Your jonin is Orochimaru." Itachi's eyebrows rose slowly. That interesting kid was going to be on his team. He wondered what that quality he noticed about the boy was and how he could use it to boost the success of the team. The girl, Anko, was above average and seemed to have a slightly sadistic aura in the making. Right now, as far as Itachi could tell, Anko was a sweet and caring girl. Even if she looked a little lonely. Itachi's gut feeling told him that Anko was going to be a hell of a sadist. He also heard that she retook the last year of the academy when her previous teacher left the village.

Their teacher was a surprise though. Who would've thought that the most powerful of the sannin would become a jonin instructor? Orochimaru was well known as a prodigy even in his youth, so Itachi hoped that his instructor would be able to relate to him and his situation. If not then Itachi would just have to do his own training and research. It's not like it would be a big deal or anything, as once you reach chunin you don't have a jonin to hold your hand through everything. Most chunin choose to find another instructor for the area they decide to specialise in, but it is blatantly obvious that there is no coddling whatsoever for the chunin pupil.

Thinking more about his new teacher, Itachi thought about the bad rumours circulating about the most powerful of the sannin. Itachi had heard that he had been performing cruel and immoral experiments to prisoners of Konoha. Legally, Orochimaru could do whatever sick experiments he wanted to the prisoners. After all, how do they think they test poisons, antidotes, torture techniques, and illusion techniques? It's not like they can test potentially lethal techniques on their fellow leaf ninja.

While Itachi was caught in thought murmurs were being spread in confusion and a little bit of fear. About a year ago, it was found out that he was doing experiments on civilians that had committed crimes as well as artificially impregnating female prisoners in order to have infants to experiment on. For a while there had been a lot of uproar from a lot of civilians and some ninja, and many questions on the legality of the experiments. Orochimaru quickly became fed up with the village ransacking his labs and attacking him and decided to leave Konoha.

A few months ago, the ruling decision of the council was that since all of the experiments were done on prisoners and therefore legal. The infant experiments were a huge subject of debate before it was finally concluded as legal due to the infants falling under the category of genetic experimentation on prisoners. Orochimaru did not come back after his innocence was declared and only recently had the whole issue calmed down. That was why he was so surprised that Orochimaru would be teaching; he didn't even know that Orochimaru was back in Konoha!

"What?" A quiet, but deadly sounding voice rang out amongst the murmuring. Anko, who had been shock still until now, stood up with her bangs shadowing her eyes. Everyone went silent.

Anko walked up to the teacher with her eyes still hidden, and grabbed their teacher's arm tightly with a strength that they didn't expect from her. She looked up into the teacher's face and smiled eerily, "Are you saying that no-good snake bastard is back in Konoha and is going to be our instructor?"

The teacher just nodded, wondering what triggered that nasty atmosphere from his normally gentle student. He was about to tell the class that their jonin leaders would come to get their teams now, but was interrupted by a laugh.

"Ku, ku, ku. Hello little Anko, shouldn't you be more careful about insulting your superiors?" A pale man with long dark hair walked into the classroom.

Anko immediately let go of the academy teacher and launched herself at Orochimaru. Once she reached her destination she had unseen tears rolling down her face as her head was buried into Orochimaru's chest as she hugged him. Orochimaru simply patted her head fondly.

Itachi had the sudden feeling that he was intruding on something private and emotional, so he looked away from the scene.

In looking away from Anko his eyes met with his other teammate. They both stared at each other for a few moments before shifting their gazes elsewhere. Itachi was only slightly reassured by the neutrality in his eyes, as Iruka seemed to be the kind of person who can hide his emotions when he wants to. Following Iruka's new line of sight, Itachi traced Iruka's gaze to a girl in their class. Itachi's interest was peaked slightly, and he was also slightly annoyed. If his teammate had a crush on the girl his eyes were trained on, then it could potentially cause problems later.

Itachi suppressed a groan and coughed a few times to let his still hugging team leader and teammate know that it was time to stop. Anko removed herself from Orochimaru's person and had the grace to look abashed.

Orochimaru simply smiled and said, "Squad 9, follow me."

Itachi and Iruka responded by standing up and offering a 'yes sir'. They both walked towards the front of the class and exited the room with Anko and Orochimaru.

The new team navigated the academy's hallways in silence. The silence persisted until a few minutes after they exited the academy when Iruka spoke up, "Where are we going?"

Orochimaru's grin got bigger if that was even possible, "We are going to one of my labratories for your second genin exam."

"Oh," Iruka said, and they were quiet again. Anko already knew of the second genin test since she was technically already a genin who passed the second test but sent back to the academy. Iruka and Itachi weren't surprised due to how easy the first genin exam was.

Orochimaru hummed in delight, "Ku, ku, ku. I'm glad that none of you are screamers, so I'll reward you with some information. The second genin test has an average fail rate of 66%."

Itachi only gave the information a quick thought before dismissing it. Approximately that percentage of people barely passed the first test, and would likely fail the second test. Around 10 minutes later, Orochimaru stopped in front of a pretty average looking building and turned around.

"This year I have been given permission to administer my own test, so as a warning to Anko it will not be the same as last time. Your task is simple: go into the lab, find your way to the back, touch a seal, and return here." Orochimaru instructed.

"What's the catch?" Itachi asked.

Orochimaru pulled out a couple of kunai, "I will be attacking you as you progress through the lab. I will not be allowed do anything that hampers your movement, cripple, or kill you, but I can cause you a lot of pain." Orochimaru paused for a moment before continuing, "I will not lie, this test is a lot harder than the usual test. At any point during the test just say 'stop' and I will ensure that you will get another jonin instructor who will give an easier test."

Orochimaru opened the door and the dark entrance loomed threateningly over the new genin. Disappearing into the darkness, Orochimaru said one final thing, "The test starts now."

The three genin immediately sprung into action, chasing after Orochimaru through the doorway. As soon as they entered the lights turned on, and all the genin almost threw up at what they saw. Human bodies were floating in semi-translucent green fluid with dozens of wires and tubes sticking out of each body. Some contained mutated bodies with grotesque limbs and oddly coloured skin, while others contained humans missing eyes, heads, legs, or unmentionables. There were even a few containing babies and young children. The genin visibly flinched when a movement in one of the tanks caught their eyes.

3 kunai flew out of seemingly nowhere and grazed each of the genin causing blood to start dribbling onto the lab floor. Orochimaru's echoing voice taunted them, "What are you all standing around for? You have a mission to complete. Unless you're giving up?"

"No way!" Anko said, "I am not going to lose my teacher a second time." She followed up on her words by running forwards through the lab.

Itachi and Iruka glanced at each other for a moment before following her, trying their best to ignore the slimy experiments lining the walls.

"That's more like it." Orochimaru's voice came again, and soon the young ninja were attempting to dodge as many weapons as they could while dashing their way through the lab that seemed to be just a giant hallway.

Anko, Itachi, and Iruka all reached the end of the lab, planting their hands on the giant seal that took up most of the wall, and unconsciously sent chakra through it. They were prepared to return the way they came in order to pass the test but were stopped by Orochimaru standing in front of them.

"That's enough, you all pass." Orochimaru said, and beckoned the genin to sit down on chairs that they hadn't noticed before. "First I would like to tell you the point of this test," Orochimaru started with, "Most jonin either test teamwork or skills, but those are both things that are learned with time and I personally think it's unfair to test genin based on them. My test was different as it tested your resolve. I can teach you skills, and I can teach you how to work as a team, but none of that matters if you don't have the mentality to be a ninja. You would just freeze up at any morbid thing like you did at the start of this exercise and get killed by enemy ninja. By not giving up through pain and disgust you have proven to me that you are capable of being ninja."

Anko, Itachi, and Iruka sat and absorbed this for a few moments before Iruka spoke up unsteadily, "I think I get it. If you get distracted by immoral things on a mission, then you are only likely to get you and your teammates hurt."

Orochimaru nodded at Iruka's secondary explanation, "That was a good summary but it has two flaws. First, we are ninja. Ninja do things like kidnaping, assassination, seduction, and murder, but they do it with good reasons and intentions which makes it hard to draw a line between moral and immoral. The second thing is that is you are distracted by your enemy's wrongdoings, you won't get hurt, you will get killed. Enemy ninja will not show mercy for you just like you shouldn't show mercy for them."

Now confident that his lesson had sunk in, Orochimaru continued, "Now, everyone should introduce themselves. I would like you to mention your likes, dislikes, hobbies, and aspirations. Anko, you can go first."

Anko leaned forwards in her seat, propping her head up with her elbows resting on her knees, "My name is Anko and I am 11 years old. I like dango, music, and having Orochimaru as a teacher. I dislike loud people and people who assume the worst about others," She said that part with a scowl, "My hobbies are training in forests and playing with my kunai. My dream is to become a great ninja like Orochimaru!"

Orochimaru was satisfied with her explanation and moved onto the next person, "Your turn Iruka."

"Wait," Itachi said before turning to Anko, "What is your relationship with Orochimaru? It it blatantly obvious you already know each other."

Anko sat straight up, "You don't know? Where have you been living, under a rock?"

Itachi frowned, "I assure you I have been living in the Uchiha compound, and at no point in time have I lived under a rock."

Anko rolled her eyes, "It was a metaphor. Anyways, Orochimaru was my instructor for half a year but when the whole scandal with the experiments happened and he left, a bunch of people saw me a untrustworthy and sent me back to the academy for 'mental issues'."

Itachi was angry that some of the villagers could be so insensible. He was about to voice his issue with Anko's treatment but was cut off by Iruka.

"On a less depressing note, my name is Iruka and I am 13 years old. I like my parents, children, and the sunrise. I don't like cinnamon and bullying. For hobbies… I guess I like to read a lot. I don't really have any goals but I think that whatever I do decide for my goal that it will be something that will help others." Iruka introduced himself.

"Now you Uchiha," Orochimaru said.

Itachi leveled a glare at Orochimaru, "My name is _Itachi_ not Uchiha. I am 7 years old and I like pocky, candles, and butterflies. I don't like people who misjudge me because of my family name," Itachi sent another glare to Orochimaru, "Or people who think that they are better than others. My hobbies are training and thinking of stories. My aspiration is to make sure my unborn baby brother becomes the best person he can be."

"Hmm," Orochimaru, "It seems we have a good balance of personalities on this team. Our next meeting will be tomorrow at training ground 21 at 9:00AM. We will be doing Taijutsu practice and teamwork exercises tomorrow so come prepared. Dismissed."

All three genin nodded, and proceeded to flee the laboratory as quickly as possible. They were hanging around those creepy experiments for long enough.

 _ **Hokage's Office**_

Orochimaru walked into the Hokage's office to report on his team, and wondered what had changed recently. Just yesterday, Minato had used his flying thunder god technique to appear next to a seal he had hidden on Orochimaru when he fled. Orochimaru was surprised and expected to have to escape from him, but was even more surprised when he informed him that he had been deemed innocent and proceeded to take Orochimaru back to Konoha using the flying thunder god technique again.

Minato's darker intentions were revealed when he started bargaining with Orochimaru and offered what he described as a 'promising experimental subject'. Their bargain was quite simply actually. Orochimaru would continue his research for Konoha and do experiments on the special subject and in exchange Orochimaru would be able to officially return to Konoha and teach Anko again. Of course, two other academy students were also tacked on as a condition for teaching Anko.

Now, Orochimaru and Minato were meeting to iron out the details of their agreement. They needed to plan on what happens when Anko and her teammates reach chunin, when the subject would be delivered to Orochimaru, and the reopening of Orochimaru's laboratories. Much to Orochimaru's dislike, Minato still hadn't told him exactly what or who his new test subject was.

"Hello Minato," Orochimaru greeted the Hokage who was sitting at his desk.

"Ah, Orochimaru. Did your team pass or fail?" Minato asked.

"Ku, ku, ku. Skipping straight to business aren't you Minato? No matter, my team passed of course. I wouldn't expect anything else from them." Orochimaru responded.

Minato wrote something down on a form on his desk before directing his attention back to Orochimaru, "Now that I have fulfilled my parts of the bargain by allowing you back to Konoha and giving you a team with Anko, let's organise your half of the deal."

Orochimaru went into serious mode at once, "The first thing I need to do is get my laboratories running again. After the many accusations, ANBU laid many of my labs, research notes, and experiments to waste. They will also need updated technology as new equipment was developed over the year I've been out of the village."

Minato nodded, "I will send out teams to repair and update the labs under your supervision. If all goes well they should be fully operational within a week."

"Good," Orochimaru seemed pleased by the speed in which Minato would ensure his labs are running again, "Once my laboratories are fully repaired and revitalised I can start the experiments on the subject you wanted me to test."

Minato scowled deeply, "Sadly there are certain conditions that must be followed with this particular subject. The first is that it must be returned to me before the end of each day and there will be some days in which it will not be available. The second is that by the time it is returned it must have no sign of being experimented upon. That means no experiments with long lasting effects. The last condition is that the subject cannot die unless I instruct you to kill it."

Orochimaru pondered on what this thing could possible be to have those sorts of odd restrictions. Internally shrugging he decided to grace Minato with a response, "Your conditions will be followed, but what is this mysterious subject that you want me to experiment on?"

Minato just smiled an evil, evil smile, "You'll see."

Orochimaru was instantly on edge from the uncharacteristic malevolence coming from the blond Hokage. When he left Konoha he had spotted the seeds of insanity planted inside Minato, which was part of the reason he left. Now, he could see that the seeds have long taken root and only now were the growing sprouts visible to the world. If Minato's insanity flowered into a poisonous bloom, then considering Minato's status as Hokage and as a SS-rank ninja, the dangerous flower of insanity could be very damaging to Konoha.

He could be wrong though. It is very possible that this subject was a major threat to Konoha and Minato simply takes a touch of delight in the probable suffering of the subject. Orochimaru's gut feeling said that this bloodthirst was a lot deeper than a simple enemy of Konoha. It was then solidified in Orochimaru's mind that Minato's mind is rotting, and when something is rotting there is only one thing you can do.

Throw it out.

 _ **Namikaze Estate**_

Kushina laid down on the soft grass of the garden and looked up at the stars. Under her brash and caring mother act she hid from her feelings about her son. Nobody should misinterpret this to mean that she doesn't love her son. She loves him with all her heart, believe it! The part that Kushina needs to puzzle out is how she feels about the Kyuubi somewhat merging with her son. Before and after the sealing, all she thought about it was that it was the only way to be a part of her son's life. She knows that the Kyuubi would've been sealed into him either way, but she was still debating the morality of making an unborn child a jinchuriki.

On one hand, by sealing the Kyuubi in Naruto before he was born it allowed his chakra to build up a natural immunity to the more poisonous bijuu chakra. It would also allow his chakra system to regulate it in a way that could benefit his future career as a ninja. Although on the other side, if it was sealed into Naruto after he was born then he wouldn't have the ears and tails that would mark him as a demon in the eyes of others. Would her little Naru live a better life if she and Minato hadn't forced the sealing on him?

Kushina knew that the decision they had made was the only possible one. Anything else would've risked the Kyuubi escaping and rampaging the village. She only hoped that the villagers would be able to see Naruto as the one who saved them from the destructive forces of an angry nine-tailed bijuu. Kushina knew that it would tear Minato into pieces to have to choose a side between Naruto and the village. Kushina was confident that while it may hurt Minato to pick a side, he would surely side with family.

Thinking about Naruto's extra appendages, she could see first hand how good and understanding people could get the wrong impression. The two solutions to this problem that Kushina could picture would be either to hide Naruto's ears and tails with an illusion or give Naruto enough positive reputation that they would know he isn't a demon from his reputation. These solutions had major flaws though, as Kushina didn't want her son to be forced to a life where he had to cover up his real body every time he went into public areas. It would also be difficult to construct a positive reputation for him while he is less than a week old.

Kushina was afraid of how she could protect Naruto from enemies when she couldn't even protect him from the stinking animal who dared to harm her little Naruto. Her thoughts reminding her of Naruto's wounds, she held him gently as she removed the bandages. To her surprise, there was barely any blood on the bandages, as if the scratches were healed immediately following their infliction. In fact, tracing her hands down Naruto's tiny cheeks, they were fully healed aside from 3 paper thin marks on each side.

Kushina was pleased that Naruto inherited the Uzumaki healing factor, and that it seemed to be amplified by the Kyuubi's chakra. The Kyuubi has been sealed in one container or another for around 100 years now, but Kushina had still heard tales of the Kyuubi's powerful regeneration from stories passed on through families. Apparently, any amount damage inflicted would be regenerated within seconds. It seems like Naruto had somewhat adopted that trait from the Kyuubi judging by the small amount of blood on the bandages.

The thing Kushina didn't understand is why the whisker-like marks hadn't faded away. Kushina knows that her healing factor will eliminate scars from her skin, but the scars on Naruto's face haven't healed over. _Maybe because he's still a baby his healing factor isn't that strong yet,_ Kushina thought but immediately knew it was wrong. With the Kyuubi's chakra, Naruto's healing factor has already far surpassed Kushina's.

Kushina sighed. It seemed like the things that would make other people label Naruto as a freak were piling up. The importance of having a loving circle of friends and family was constantly growing. Kushina knew that she and Minato could provide a loving family, but no matter how much she and Minato care for their child they won't be able to replace Naruto's friends. Also, in this dangerous world of ninja she and Minato could be killed at any time and Naruto would need someone to turn to if they died.

Keeping that in mind, Kushina planned for a surprise visit with Mikoto soon. Mikoto was her best friend, and she was the one that she would trust with Naruto if anything ever happened to her. Mikoto was also 5 months pregnant with her own baby boy. Mikoto was also one of the few people who knew that Kushina was pregnant and married to Minato. Kushina knew that Naruto and Mikoto's son would be like brothers, or perhaps like cousins because she and Mikoto were practically sisters.

Kushina frowned slightly. Tomorrow isn't a good day to visit because they'll probably be celebrating Itachi becoming a genin. Kushina was also a bit worn out still from giving birth 2 days ago. She decided that she would spend tomorrow relaxing with Minato and Naruto, then the day after she would visit Mikoto. Itachi would be out doing D-ranks and Fugaku would probably be busy with clan business so the day would be perfect to hang out and chat over tea. And a light spar. They are ninja after all, not housewives.

 _ **Naruto's Mind**_

Some time had passed in the comfortable stillness before the big energy began to move again. Less panicky than before, Naruto payed more attention to the way that the energy moved. He could spot certain patterns to the movement that he hadn't noticed before. Occasionally within the movements there would be a couple repeated ones like a thin strand of energy reaching towards him, or how the energy would retract on itself as if flowing inwards.

Naruto curiously tried to move his own energy in a thin strand towards the strange energy like it had done towards him. His attempt turned out more like a shapeless blob extending towards the being, which frustrated Naruto a lot. He tried really hard to move his energy in that weird way! His frustration was cut off by a pulse of energy from the big energy. The big energy seemed more prominent, brighter. It made Naruto feel like he did something good, and he felt his own energy go a bit lighter. He was _happy._

But, he was still angry at himself for being unable to do it properly. He needed to practice moving his energy like the nice big energy. Naruto tried to move his entire energy in a direction and felt his energy shift, but not move. The big energy seemed to sense what Naruto was trying to do and positioned itself in a way similar to Naruto before letting out another small flare to regain his attention. Paying rapt attention to the big energy, Naruto carefully observed as the energy moved its energy downwards which pushed the rest of the energy upwards.

Naruto didn't understand how moving his energy one direction made the rest go in the other direction but he still copied what the big energy did haphazardly. He continued to attempt the tricky maneuver until he felt something pull at him. Moving his awareness towards the big energy, he didn't sense any movement from it, but he still felt the tug. The tug pulled until Naruto moved, and he quickly became upset as the big energy was fading away.

Naruto felt himself be deposited back into the darkness he had been in before he went where the big energy was. His energy began to bubble and scrape in his loss of the big energy. The darkness was different this time; not as dark, but Naruto wanted the big energy back! He felt an energy enter the range of his senses and was filled with hope that the big energy was back but was disappointed when he realised that it was the energy that was bigger than him but no-where near as big as the other energy. Now that he could sense the smaller energy better, he could tell that his shape was somewhere between the shape of the smaller chakra and the shape of the bigger chakra.

Naruto was calmed with the presence of the smaller energy. He didn't have any way to describe what these energies were, but later when he understood language, he would know that the words he was looking for were, 'Mommy' and 'Daddy'.

 _ **Training Ground 21**_

If someone was to try and describe training ground 21 with 3 words they would would describe it with 'rocks', 'rocks', and 'rocks'. That would be an accurate summary of the training field as it was covered in rock of all shapes and sizes. The parts of the field that weren't covered in large boulders or medium sized rocks were covered in a gravel-like substance that looked like a bunch of smashed pieces of rock. There was nowhere in the training ground that any soil was visible. Overall, it looked like the sky above training ground 21 rained boulders and giant children had a snowball fight with the rocks.

This is what team 9 saw when they entered the training ground, and they were all seriously debating the safety of the area. Iruka had arrived first, ten minutes before they were scheduled to arrive and thought that he had taken a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in a construction zone. Well, less construction and more of a destruction zone. He was about to leave to look for the training ground until Anko showed up and confirmed that the rock apocalypse zone was indeed training ground 21.

Anko paled when she reached the training ground. She had only been Orochimaru's student for around 2 months but she did know that Orochimaru definitely did not coddle his genin. While she was his student, he would put her through intense conditioning and chakra control exercises that would always leave her exhausted by the end. Then Orochimaru would also expect them to do more conditioning on their own time on top of all the other workouts they did. As soon as her eyes fell onto the training field Orochimaru instantly switched from a tough teacher to a sadistic teacher. She almost cried anime tears.

Itachi arrived around 5 minutes after Anko, taking in the training field with a stoic attitude. Orochimaru said that they would be training in taijutsu and teamwork, but he couldn't see how this training field was good for either of those. Perhaps he had a hidden lab here as the entire area seemed to be abandoned. Itachi was worried about training inside the field, as he could see a lot of very pointy rocks that could probably go straight through his foot unless he was wearing heavy combat boots. As it was, he was wearing ninja sandals. That isn't even mentioning the rocks that are hidden from his view.

Orochimaru came right at 9:00, and observed the 3 genin. They all seemed to have varying degrees of fear and disbelief, with Anko looking like she wanted to bolt and Iruka pretending to himself that they were not actually going to train here. An amused smile crept onto the snake sannin's face. Things were going to be different with this team as all of them had great potential. Anko was dragged behind by her other teammates with his last team, but this time her team members can equal or surpass her.

"Ku, ku, ku. Hello little genin, are you ready for your taijutsu training?" Orochimaru let a tiny sliver of killing intent mix in with the question just so the young ninja knew that this training was not going to be pleasant.

The killing intent worked as intended as all 3 ninja gulped and nodded.

"First let's do a little history lesson on this training field. As you know, the 3rd ninja war ended about a year ago due to our Hokage slaughtering a large mass of Iwa's forces. Around 3 years ago, there was a team of underground infiltration experts who entered Konoha. They happened to surface in training ground 21 but they were quickly found out and intercepted by ANBU. The ANBU squad that fought them also happened to contain a lot of earth specialists. A large earth ninjutsu fight occurred and the entire area became covered in rock. Since we were still in war, we fixed up the buildings around the training field and moved all the scattered rock to the training ground. They never had time to fix the field, so they just left it the way it was and let earth users train their affinity here."

Itachi voiced a question, "If it is used to train earth affinity then why are we coming her to train taijutsu?"

"Good question," Orochimaru said, "When you are attacking a bandit camp in the mountains, or fighting a missing nin in any rocky area you won't have the luxury of a flat training field to fight them on. I am getting you used to fighting with difficult terrain now while we are safe in Konoha as opposed to while your life's in danger and the slightest mistake can result in your death."

The genin's eyes widened at the realisation. They hadn't really given much thought to how terrain could affect the battle even though it is actually one of the most important factors.

"We are not training there yet," Orochimaru told the genin, "We need to take steps up to that point. First we are going to the library to look for taijutsu styles."

Itachi spoke up for the second time, "But I already have the intercepting fist."

Orochimaru lightly scowled at him, "You may have a style already but that doesn't mean your teammates do. Also, I don't want you to use the intercepting fist as it is a flawed style that relies heavily on the sharingan. Once you run out of the chakra needed to maintain the sharingan the style becomes 4 times less effective, which will get you killed. If you were fighting someone on an undercover mission and used the sharingan with your taijutsu you are alerting everyone in the area who can sense chakra to your presence. The intercepting fist is also too rigid, and can't be adapted to individual fighting styles. This is why I also want you to learn another style. I can't stop you from using the intercepting fist, but at least I can give you something to fall back on."

Itachi already knew some of the downsides of using the intercepting fist, but he didn't expect there to be so many disadvantages. Although he wasn't exactly surprised either. It would make sense for the Uchiha to stick to a flawed style just because of their pride.

"I agree with that, I meant no disrespect." Itachi said to reflect his thoughts. If his father was watching him he knew that he would go into a rage of how he wasn't acting like a 'proper Uchiha'. The way you act like a proper Uchiha is to have a superiority complex and inferiority complex at the same time, and Itachi wants none of that.

Orochimaru just gave a small grunt in acknowledgement of his apology, "Let's go."

With that, Squad 9 headed towards the library. On the way there, Orochimaru had them talk about their fighting styles and what kinds of physical techniques interest them.

"I usually fight based on speed and accuracy with some strength mixed in," Itachi started describing his style, "I like to fight my opponents psychologically as well, to trick them into fighting aggressively and taking advantage of their mistakes. I want to find taijutsu that can complement this and be used easily with genjutsu."

Orochimaru turned slightly towards Itachi without slowing down, "There are a couple taijutsu I can think of that follow most of those criteria. One would be the normal style for genjutsu wielder, the illusionary fist. Another to look into is the taunting fist, which is all about baiting the enemy into making mistakes. The last one I can think of off the top of my head is the needle style which is similar to the gentle fist except it's often used with senbon and it attacks pressure points instead of chakra points."

Itachi was about to say something until Orochimaru added in another bit of advice.

"You don't need to learn only one style. Good taijutsu users makes their own style and techniques using parts of different styles in combination," Orochimaru finished, "Iruka, Anko, that goes for you two as well."

Itachi was again cut off from what he wanted to say, this time by Anko who was eager to share what she wanted for her taijutsu style.

"I like to fight up close and personal with flexibility and precision along with some good old-fashion intimidation. Causing the greatest amount of pain would be good too," It was here the Itachi and Iruka experienced their first dose of Anko's revealed sadisticness, but Anko didn't notice their expressions, "The kinda taijutsu I wanna learn is something good with poison and good with dodging."

Orochimaru smiled, even though his face was already in that ever present smirk, "The style that I prefer, the snake style, would fit that description almost perfectly. A close second would be the binding fist which is like the snake style but it uses more movement constricting techniques and isn't as good with poison. Other styles that could suit you is the seducer style which is mostly about seducing your opponents but also incorporates flexibility, misdirection and that 'up close and personal' you mentioned."

The genin all flushed red when they heard about the seducer style. They could only imagine what Orochimaru meant by 'up close and personal'.

"Thanks." Anko managed to squeak out from the embarrassment. Although the style did sound interesting…

"Well I guess I'll go now." Iruka said, managing to be the third person to interrupt Itachi before he started speaking.

Itachi didn't even know why he bothered.

"The only specific thing I can think of about my own type of fighting is that I lean a little more towards speed and power rather than accuracy and flexibility. Since I am fairly well rounded in terms of taijutsu I would like to find a style that is very adaptable and can fit almost any situation."

"Ku, ku, ku," Orochimaru laughed in a way that sounded creepy but didn't feel creepy, "It seems like you kids balance each other not only in personality but in fighting styles as well. Some of the more versatile fighting styles you could use are the justice fist which is very adaptable but also relies a bit on balance. The monkey style created by the Sarutobi clan is also very well rounded, and is often used with a staff or double sided blade. Just remember that the styles I mentioned are only a few of many different styles that could suit you. You could even find a move you like from a fighting style that doesn't correspond with your way of combat."

"That makes sense," Iruka said, "Although I don't think we balance each other that well because Anko and Itachi both have more aggressive fighting styles while I have a rounded style. Our squad is missing a defensive or countering taijutsu user."

Orochimaru smiled somewhat fondly, "That is a very good analysis Iruka, but there is a fact that you are missing. Our squad is going to be specialised in assassination, information gathering, and research since the three of you scored the highest in stealth and tracking. Your psychology was also deemed to be the best suited to these missions which are more to the shady side of things in the eyes of civilians."

Anko's nose scrunched up as she interrupted Orochimaru, "Wait, are you saying that some psychologist decided that we would be the most sadistic and emotionless of the bunch?"

"No," Orochimaru countered, "They decided that your minds would be able to take the mental stress. The fact that the way most people deal with the mental stress by being sadistic or emotionless is completely unrelated. Anyways, because of the sensitivity of the missions we will go on, if we are discovered by the enemy we are to flee immediately. If you do get into a fight that you can't run away from, you kill your enemy as quickly as possible before attempting to flee again. There is no reason why you should be using a defensive style."

"But what if later one of us discovers that we naturally lean more towards defensive techniques?" Iruka asked.

Orochimaru hummed in thought, "Well, I don't really see that happening with Anko and Itachi but if you want to delve into defensive combat then you will likely have to assume the role of a decoy or a baiter."

Anko looked a bit confused, "What would a decoy or baiter do on a stealthy assassination mission?"

"There are many ways you can use a decoy or baiter in an assassination," Orochimaru replied, "You could use a decoy to distract the target, draw away resistance with a minor commotion, or as a stand in for the target after they are removed. A baiter can lure the target to an easy assassination spot, intercept supplies, or manipulate the target into killing themselves. There are countless ways you can use defensive roles in an assassination."

"Why did you list a bunch of manipulation tasks as things a defence can do? Shouldn't you have an interrogator or spy do that?" Anko questioned.

"Ku, ku, ku. Any ninja who fights defensively is already a manipulator," Orochimaru lectured, "Ninja are weapons of the land of fire used to kill. Defending is just a tactic used to stall for time or draw attention away from another operation. If you're fighting defensively, then that means that at anytime your enemy can simply avoid you or wait for you to attack, but if a defender attacks then they are at a disadvantage. Therefore, any ninja who fights defensively needs to be able to trick their enemy into fighting them and trick them to make a mistake."

They stopped talking for a while after the on the go taijutsu and strategy lesson. Itachi absorbed the facts and concepts he had been taught with the ease that had him labeled as a prodigy. Now that there was finally some quiet, he now had the opportunity to finally voice his earlier question.

"You mentioned the needle style for me which is most effectively used with senbon. In the academy all I learned about senbon was how to recognise them and a little throwing theory. What are senbon used for?" Itachi asked slightly embarrassed.

Orochimaru chuckled, "Ku, ku, ku. Senbon can be used for a wide variety of things. They can deliver poison, remotely activate explosive tags, target pressure points, and even set traps on the fly when used together with ninja wire. Senbon can actually be used for almost anything because they are small, narrow, and quick. Unfortunately, because of their small size and shape it is extremely difficult to master throwing and they do not have a lot of force behind them, so you can't use them to break bones, pierce internal organs, or cause blood loss."

"W-" Itachi started but was stopped by Orochimaru.

"You can answer any further questions yourself. We have arrived at the library." Orochimaru stated and indeed they had. The library was a large impressive thing that was styled in an old fashioned way that was similar to the architecture from before the second ninja war. It had curving wooden pillars that had a fading polish waxed over them. There were also various plants growing along the sides of the library as well as from hanging pots.

Orochimaru left the sides of the genin for a moment to converse with the ninja who was guarding the entrance, who nearly had a heart attack when she sighted Orochimaru. Apparently not many people knew of Orochimaru's return yet. After a quick check to ensure that none of them were henged or under a genjutsu and an explanation of the rules while inside the library they were admitted inside.

Orochimaru turned towards his students for one more lesson before they separated for individual research, "The last thing I want you to remember before you go looking for suitable taijutsu styles is what can you use with it. The illusionary clone technique and a kunai don't do much by themselves but if you combine them it can be lethal by using a clone to distract an enemy while you slice their throat. The same thing applies to taijutsu. How can you use it with other skills? There are so many paths of study a ninja can take from tactics to fuinjutsu to medical ninjutsu, and by combining them amazing things are created like Tsunade's body enhancement technique or the fourth Hokage's flying thunder god technique. Remember where your strengths lie, now shoo. Anko stay behind, I want to talk to you for a moment."

Iruka and Itachi glanced at each other then at Anko for a moment but then left towards the taijutsu section of the library.

"So what did you want to talk to me about?" Anko said in a bubbly manner.

Orochimaru sighed, "Anko, I know that you may be uncomfortable with it, but the fact is that as a female ninja on an information gathering and assassination squad that you will have to learn some seduction."

Anko turned bright red within seconds, "B-but I'm only 11, I don't even have any of the," Anko seemed to cough for a moment, "equipment to seduce anybody."

"You would be surprised at how many pedophile perverts there are out there. In fact, research shows that nearly 30% of the population will feel attraction towards children at some point in their lives." Orochimaru replied evenly.

"How do you even know that?!" Anko exclaimed, getting a few looks from the other people in the library.

"Yamanaka," Was all that Orochimaru had to say, "You probably won't have to use it a lot, but it is worth looking into. It never hurts to have another card in your hand."

Anko just nodded, as the blush seemed to paralyse all movement in her mouth. She then turned towards the taijutsu and left to rejoin her teammates, slightly dazed.

Itachi and Iruka noticed the deep flush to Anko's face immediately and were concerned. Iruka, the oldest of them, spoke to Anko out of worry.

"Orochimaru didn't do anything perverted to you did he?" Iruka demanded.

"No!" Anko shouted before lowering her voice, "He just talked to me about learning some… seduction techniques." The blush that had died away in her fit of anger returned in full force.

"Hmm," Itachi pondered out loud, "Perhaps we should learn some as well. We can seduce the women and gay men and you can seduce the men and gay women." Itachi had a faint blush on his face that with his young age actually made him look quite cute.

Anko immediately commented on that, "You are seven and no where near puberty. It is physically impossible for you to have a sex drive at your age. You are never going to be able to seduce anybody while you aren't even a teenager yet."

Itachi shrugged, "I can always use genjutsu or henge to make me look older. When people are turned on they won't focus enough to notice a genjutsu."

Iruka was curled up into a ball behind Itachi muttering, "No shame. No shame. No shame."

Anko had actually fainted from the implication. Orochimaru, who had been watching from afar, simply shook his head. They will need a lot of training in resisting seduction and mental trickery. To give them some credit, they had recovered quickly.

Anko woke up and said, "Let's just look for taijutsu already."

Once team 9 was settled into their taijutsu hunt, Orochimaru left to find some of his own materials. After confirming his identity and permission to be in Konoha to the secret ANBU guard in a subtle manner, he entered the secret information room. Orochimaru was the head of research and development (R&D) before he left Konoha, and will likely take over for whoever replaced him after training his genin team. He needed to catch up on the things that he missed while he was away. While he was Konoha's best researcher, Konoha had more resources than he could ever get as a missing nin. That was one of the biggest reasons to why he came back.

Orochimaru browsed through the information starting from the most recent ones from after his departure. The first month was pretty much what he expected, continuations of his in-progress experiments with a couple other minor toxin development. It was the second and third months that made his blood boil. Konoha had done almost nothing aside from testing a few minor theories he had made a while back, and some autopsies of enemy corpses after missions. The slacking of the R&D department was unacceptable, and he hadn't even looked past the first three months he was gone yet.

The research and development portion of Konoha was arguably the most important sector; the only other that came close being torture and information. Because of the great variety of plants and animals that could be found in the land of fire, poison users were common and prominent in Konoha. The thing is, once a poison specialist uses a poison on a mission, other villages can collect samples of the poison and form antidotes. This is why poisons must be regularly modified and changed to work around any cures that has been found for it. With the R&D department slacking off the way it is, poison specialists would run out of usable poisons within a year. Orochimaru wouldn't be surprised if administration saw a decline in poison users recently.

The other part of the departments lack of development was antidotes. Just as other villages made their own poisons, Konoha needed to make antidotes to those poisons. Orochimaru would have to put a lot of effort to catch up to the other villages in poisons and antidotes.

Something Orochimaru realized in his time as a missing nin is how much he took his resource materials for granted. Without a ninja village, Orochimaru had to fight tooth and nail to get even half-decent research materials.

This only amplified his fury at the members of the R&D department for wasting all the perfectly good experiments they could have done with Konoha's abundance of resources.

And that was only talking about poisons, not to mention all the medical herbology, medical technique, nin and genjutsu development, kinesthetic research, genetic and chakra experimentation, and elemental chakra research that they could have been doing.

Orochimaru dreaded to think of what would've happened if he didn't come back to Konoha. First, the poison specialist would die out, with only the ones proficient in making their own poisons surviving. Next, more ninja would die from poison because antidotes stopped being developed. After that, even more ninja would die due to lack of new medical developments and less medic nin training. That would also result in the academy and genin standards being lowered to replace all the dying ninja. In the long term, the other villages would gain more power while the leaf's development was halted and the new generation of ninja would all be ninjutsu spewing brutes that don't have the proper tools they need to grow as ninja.

Orochimaru decided that if he ever left Konoha again, that he would have to manipulate the research and development department internally to ensure that Konoha doesn't become a village of glorified thugs. Either that, or he would have to train his genin to become the R&D department's new assets, like Orochimaru was.

Having mentally blown off his anger he skimmed through the rest of the year, which only decreased in research quantity and quality from the first few months of his absence. Moving on, he went over to the files for the torture and information department. Orochimaru would often work together with the T&I department because of the information they could provide to help in experiments and the new torture techniques R&D could supply to them. It helped that he knew the previous leader of the T&I department, Danzo. He was the teammate of his jonin instructor, so he knew him back when he was a genin.

Sadly, Danzo had lost much in the war just like any other, and would never be able to work as a ninja again. The last Orochimaru had heard, was that they would be picking a young man from the Yamanaka clan to run T&I. Orochimaru scowled, _those fools. The T &I department is much too important to be run by and inexperienced ninja._

By anybody else's terms, Yamanaka Inoichi would be experienced ninja with over a decade of life as a ninja under his belt, but to Orochimaru who had seen 2 shinobi wars, Inochi was far lacking.

It seems like the standards had dropped. Orochimaru would see if he could bargain with the Hokage about Danzo leading T&I in administration and leadership while having the Yamanaka man be the figurehead. Perhaps he could drag Minato into doing it by mentioning the extra work he would have to do in order to revitalise the R&D department from this sorry state.

As he reached the first few files from after his departure, it showed the kind of productivity that could only be attributed to Danzo. He read through all the files up into the obvious transition of T&I leadership, which only happened 2-3 weeks after he left. _How inopportune for the 2 most important departments in Konoha to lose their leader's in the same month,_ Orochimaru thought.

Orochimaru read through the first few files of the Yamanaka's work. Was he saw made his previous anger at the R&D department seem like a candle flame compared to the hell inferno of anger that was currently burning inside Orochimaru.

They had tortured Anko. Orochimaru left Anko behind in the village in hopes that she would be able to find comrades among the leaf. He just couldn't bare to condemn his cute little genin to the life of a missing nin. Orochimaru gave her his last gift to her as the cursed seal of heaven and left her in the minor laboratory that he had been inhabiting so that the Konoha ninja would be able to find her. He left her alone so that they would see that she had no part in any of the crimes they accused him of. But no, they decided that instead of simply questioning her about any information that she knows about him like they should for any other loyal Konoha ninja that they would torture her like an enemy ninja who had committed heinous crimes against the village.

Someone was going to pay. He couldn't blame Danzo, as he had legally exited the ninja forces and couldn't know about Anko's interrogation which was classified as a B-rank secret. Pretty much the entire T&I department plus the Hokage were fair game, because almost everyone in T&I is allowed access to T&I related B-rank secrets and under. The Hokage receives daily reports (summarised of course) of everything that happens in the T&I department. Minato should have ended this as soon as it started, no, before it started. The moment he heard that Anko had been brought back to the village, he should've ensured that she wouldn't be sent to T&I.

Although, the main focus of his anger right now was one Yamanaka Inoichi. He should've never been chosen for leading the T&I department. In fact, Orochimaru knew that there was one person in T&I who he would respect as the leader of it. Morino Ibiki. Orochimaru knew Danzo agreed with him. They sometimes discussed who their successors would be. The only reason he could possibly think of to chose the Yamanaka is because he was part of a clan while Ibiki came from an entirely civilian background. So, politics.

Orochimaru noticed it was starting to get dark out, so he locked away his enragement in the back of his mind and put on a calm facade to dismiss his genin. Exiting the secret information room, he made his way into the area he left his students to find nobody there. Taking a quick assessment to where each of them had gone he made a mental note to teach them how to cover their trails. He walked to Iruka, the closest, who was reading a book on tactics and squad positioning.

Iruka looked up to see Orochimaru and gave a quick explanation, "Since my style is going to be the most defensive out of me, Itachi, and Anko, I thought that tactics would be a good read. The person on defense is in the best position to view the area, and administer commands based on observations." He stumbled over his words for a second, "Of course, you would be the one giver orders, I only meant if we got separated or something…" He trailed off.

"Good job Iruka," Orochimaru said, "I just hope you didn't neglect your taijutsu."

Iruka grinned, "Nope! I have a good idea of what I want to work on now."

Orochimaru nods, "Let's go find your teammates."

Orochimaru and Iruka made their way through the library where Itachi was just putting away a book that Iruka only glimpsed the title of. He thought it was something to do with senbon or poison. Itachi just glanced at them silently and started walking in the direction he had seen Anko go to as if he already knew that they were coming to retrieve him. He probably did. It's not like they were trying to sneak up on him.

On the way to wherever Anko was, Itachi and Iruka saw that the books were beginning to lead toward the shelves that held teachings on the darker aspects of the ninja arts. They nervously tried to imagine what kind of book Anko was reading. Was it assassination? Purposeful mutilation? Corruption? Their questions were answered as they turned a corner to find Anko.

Anko, who was sitting there utterly engrossed into a book on seduction. The boy's jaws dropped. Anko, the somewhat shy, nice girl who blushed anytime someone mentioned anything to do with romantic relationships, was sitting there reading a seduction book with the biggest smile on her face. Itachi and Iruka simultaneously brought their hands together and said, "Release" while flaring their chakra. Nothing changed, except for the fact that their small chakra flare drew Anko's attention and she had turned towards them.

Orochimaru acted as if nothing was strange at all and said, "Anko, it's time to go."

Anko pouted, "But I want to stay here longer."

"The only reason you were allowed in here at all was because I pulled rank on the guards in order to let you guys in. That was only on the condition that you could not sign out or copy materials and that I would have to be in the building with you at all times." Orochimaru explained.

"Fine," She huffed, and very reluctantly put the book away.

"Since we failed to keep track of the time, we won't have any time for any big teamwork exercises today. All you're going to do is summarise what taijutsu you're looking into and one other interesting fact you learned. Anko can go first since she seemed to be very engaged with that book."

Anko coughed slightly, but didn't blush, "I thought that the snake style and seducer style would work perfectly for me if I blended them together, so I read up a bit on both. The taijutsu scroll for the seducer style recommended reading the book I just put back, 'The Art of Seduction' in order to use the style to it's full effectiveness. Well let's just let this be my interesting fact: seduction is a lot more powerful and useful than it looks."

"I am glad that you see what seduction is capable of. Many ninja, especially female ninja, look down on seduction because they see it as a degrading ninja art that is only used by those who aren't strong enough to overpower their enemies."

Anko sounded shocked and angry, "How can anyone think that a seducer is weak? Have they ever even thought of the mental fortitude it takes to flirt, kiss, or even have sex with someone that they know is an enemy of Konoha? There have been cases in which a seducer needs to have sex with someone who had raped and killed their family, act like they enjoy it, and do it again until they get the information or assassination opportunity."

Itachi and Iruka were astounded by this revelation. Before, they thought seduction missions were just a way that older ninja who didn't have time to pursue romance relieved sexual tension (or at least that was the rumour that circulated around the academy last year). But now, they couldn't understand why they couldn't see the neon flashing bit of information that, 'oh yeah, the people getting seduced are _enemies_ of Konoha'. Nobody wanted to do _that_ with the enemy.

Orochimaru smiled, guessing what the boys were thinking. Leaving them to their whirling thoughts, he decided to respond to Anko, "You are absolutely correct, but sometimes having seduction seem weak can be an advantage. It means that ninja won't take seduction resistance training seriously, and that means easier targets. But moving on from that little discussion on seduction, let's move on to what Iruka learned."

Iruka stood up a little straighter, "Well, out of the taijutsu you recommended, the only one I found okay was the justice fist, but it still didn't quite suit me. After doing a little research on the justice fist I found that it was originally adapted from an ancient style from somewhere far from the elemental nation's called the legislacerator claw. A legislacerator was what we called lawyers in the land this style came from, except these lawyers also served as hunters who tracked down criminals and brought them to 'Grand Highblood's' court for trial. The style isn't purely taijutsu. Most of the techniques are with a bladed cane and developed so that the user doesn't rely on sight in order to fight which can be a pleasant surprise to my enemies."

Orochimaru cocked his head, "You said it was ancient. Are the records of the style accurate?"

"Yes," Iruka said, "The copy I found was sitting there gathering dust, but surprisingly it is the original scroll that the creator of the style made. Although they wrote strangely, as the writing was all in teal capital letters with the 'I's, 'E's, and 'A's replaced by the numbers 1, 3, and 4 respectively. For example the author's name was spelt N-3-O-P-H-Y-T-3 R-3-D-G-L-4-R-3."

"That- is very surprising actually. Scrolls don't normally stay in good condition for more than 30 years at best, they they have to be replicated. Estimating from what you said, this scroll has been in good shape for over 200 years at least. I wonder if there is anything special about the paper? I'll have to take some samples later. I also find it strange that a visitor in a strange land would leave behind a scroll with their original techniques."

Iruka shifted, slightly nervous, "Well there was a note at the beginning from whoever received the scroll with a brief history of how it came into their possession. To answer some of your wonderings, Redglare gave the scroll away for safekeeping until her descendant came to receive it. Apparently Redglare said that nobody here would be able to learn the style because of it's difficulty and tailoring towards herself."

"Are you sure that you want to take a difficult style? I am sure that you would find other appropriate styles if you looked some more." Orochimaru asked.

"No, I want to use the legislatorlegislacerator claw. I can't quite explain it, but it just… seems right." Iruka responded thoughtfully.

"As long as you can use this style effectively, I'm okay with it." Orochimaru concluded, "Now Itachi, please tell us about what you were reading about."

"I looked into the needle style the most, as it allows me to fight at either close or medium range. My fact is that senbon is actually a broad category that includes over 30 different needle-like weapons." Itachi stated, giving the bare minimum necessary.

"That will be sufficient I suppose." Orochimaru grudgingly accepted. He wanted to draw a bit more than that out of Itachi. Instead he moved on to the last thing that they would do before they dispersed, "Are any of you familiar with the civilian game known as truth or dare?"

The three genin just blinked somewhat owlishly at him.

Orochimaru sighed, "It's a game where someone asks someone else 'truth or dare'. That person responds by picking one of the options. Dare means that you can tell someone to do anything- provided it doesn't break any laws or last past the duration of the game. Truth means that you ask any question and they have to answer truthfully. In our case as ninja, we can't reveal any secrets that you are not permitted to know."

Itachi looked at him strangely, "How is that civilian game going to help us with our teamwork? It seems like a silly game that is used to create entertainment by the expense of others."

Orochimaru grinned, "That would be true for civilians but we are ninja. This game will teach you what each other's boundaries are, which is important to know on a team. The dares will help you with missions. Often, you get dares that you don't want to do. Almost always, you get missions that you don't want to do. This builds up mental fortitude. Truth is simply to get to know each other better as squad members. By knowing things about someone that nobody else does, trust will build between them."

Anko looked slightly giddy, "So, when will we start?"

"We won't start today because it's late and I don't want all of you to be exhausted for taijutsu practice tomorrow." Orochimaru said, "We will play a few rounds of this game everyday after practice. I recommend that you don't start with invasive dares and truths right away, and let everybody ease into being truthful with one another. Now, get home little genin. Shoo." Orochimaru waved his hand in a way that clearly said 'go away'.

Anko, Itachi, and Iruka went home for the night.

Orochimaru notified the librarian that he was leaving for the day, and made his way to the closest laboratory that was still in good condition. Orochimaru didn't actually have a house; a house is an easy target for any threats or assassinations. Instead, he kept a futon in a sealing scroll and set it up in whichever laboratory he felt like sleeping in that night. Almost all labs had a bedroom to put a futon down in so that there is a place for the rotating scientists to sleep while watching fragile experiments that needed constant attention.

The particular lab that he had stepped into for the night was one of his few chemistry labs that didn't work with poisons and antidotes. This lab was testing different ways to get compounds to ignite, from creating chemicals that catch on fire when exposed to air or water, or special acids that create large amounts of heat when they come into contact with a carbon source. Because of the highly flammable nature of the experiments, the lab was completely fireproof and came equipped with heat resisting suits. The lab was also abandoned by his no-good R&D subordinates.

Orochimaru sighed when he saw how much dust the lab collected. All this dust could actually become a fire hazard. Orochimaru cleared a little of the dust with a minor wind ninjutsu and laid down his futon so he could sleep. Some ninja may say 9-10 pm is too early to go to sleep but Orochimaru thought that having a different sleep schedule from most ninja can be beneficial because then attacks can be made when most ninja are sleeping, which is normally somewhere between 12-3 am. By sleeping earlier, Orochimaru can be wide awake while other ninja are easy and lethargic prey. But enough of that, the day has ended and a fresh new day would be waiting for him tomorrow.

 **Yeah, kinda lame ending but who cares. I am sorry for updating so slowly but I have other commitments too.**


End file.
